Class-war graffiti in the Mission

I just walked past Local Mission Market on my way home, and found a gentleman scrubbing angry graffiti from the front of the business. Local Mission Market moved to my neighborhood less than a year ago, and sells very organic, local and expensive meat, hummus and jam. I once bought $5 English muffins there, and they were delicious.

San Francisco seems to be in the throes of a class war. There’s a palpable, much publicized rage over tech workers with lots of money moving into San Francisco and turning the city into a really classy Whole Foods, with a Peet’s Coffee on the parking level. $4 toast had the populace up in arms, Google buses are virtual Trojan horses from Silicon Valley, and I recently met the world’s worst tech person at the SFMoMA party, who made me want to graffiti hate speech on his smug little face.

I walked back to Local Mission Market and spoke with owner Yaron Milgrom, who seemed justifiably in a bad mood.

Milgrom owns four business in the Mission, including Local Cellar, Local Mission Eatery, and Local’s Corner, in addition to Local Mission Market. According to Yaron, last night a protest of his businesses was organized by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (San Francisco Chapter). ACCE is “focusing on stopping foreclosures, expanding definitions of education, helping everyone access healthcare, increasing job availability and holding banks and politicians accountable,” according to its Facebook page, where last night’s protest is listed on its Events Page. The protest was organized in conjunction with the group Our Mission No Eviction.

Milgrom was unsure if the graffiti, some of it obscene, is directly related to the organized protest or the work of some scoundrels who seem to think vandalism is a better addition to the neighborhood than an organic wine place. He pointed out that he hasn’t evicted anyone. “I’m a renter as a business owner. I’m a renter as a tenant.”

He went on to say that ACCE has accused him of discriminating against patrons in his restaurant. You can read details of those claims right here on Latin Bay Area. Milgrom claims to have met with representatives of the group who made demands, some of which he agreed with, such as sensitivity training. “I believe in diverse neighborhoods. I don’t believe in hateful speech.”

I’ve left a voicemail for ACCE, as well as District 9 Supervisor David Campos, for their thoughts on the graffiti. I’ll update the post if I hear back. (UPDATE: I spoke with Julien Ball, an organizer with ACCE, who said, “We don’t endorse and had nothing to do with the vandalism that took place. We’re committed to addressing the very real grievances of the community in a peaceful manner.” And Supervisor Campos called as well, chiming in that this vandalism is totally unacceptable, and he plans to hold a community meeting with local leaders and residents.) Really, I can’t imagine any organized community group would condone, much less encourage a crime, against a business. It’s pretty dumb that someone took the opportunity of a peaceful and legal protest to think that the best way to preserve the vibrancy of our neighborhood is to spray-paint “DIE” all over a grocery store. What do you think?

My vote? If you don’t like Mission Local Market, just go to Casa Guadalupe like everyone else.